Meet the man trying to stop road building in Norfolk

Early next year the first bulldozers are due to start digging up 1.6 miles of the roadside, to dual the A47 from Blofield to North Burlingham.

But there could yet be a spanner in the works.

Last week, Andrew Boswell, an environmental campaigner from Norwich, launched a legal challenge against the project, arguing the government had failed to properly consider the impact of carbon emissions on its net zero commitments that would result from the scheme.

The A47 will be dualled between Blofield and North Burlingham (Image: National Highways)

If his case proves successful, it could have far-reaching consequences, stopping not only the A47 work, but other road projects around the country.

It is on Norfolk, though, that the 66-year-old Dr Boswell is most focused.

In recent years, the retired university academic has made a local name for himself by opposing transport schemes he considers to be harmful to the environment - not least the controversial Western Link.

He has challenged a number of the projects, instructing lawyers to build cases against two of them.

It is an approach which has won him huge support from environmentalists.

However, it has also caused much frustration in the corridors of power, where his initiatives are seen as a drain on time and resources - including precious public finances - and an obstacle to economic growth that roadbuilding can help drive.

Andrew Boswell has been a thorn in the side of Norfolk County Council for many years (Image: Archant)

Council leaders argue that with the correct mitigation measures in place, the environmental impact of new roads can be minimised and that they will reduce journey times and are an essential part of the burgeoning electric car revolution.

For him, such arguments hold no water.

"The [suggestion from people who want to see roads built] is that if you build the road it will reduce congestion but these projects are actually built on the promise of expanding traffic and adding more congestion.

"We have a huge opportunity to reduce traffic but there have been some backwards steps, like shutting the park and ride at Postwick - we should be encouraging people onto public transport.

"We need to be putting resources into other areas and deliver a transport system for the 21st century. There was an idea that we should build back better after Covid which has sort of been lost."

Dr Boswell refers to himself as an 'independent scientist' and has had an extensive career in academia, with a degree in chemistry and a doctorate in biophysics.

He worked at the UEA from 1995 to 2006 managing its computing research department.

It was work which saw him collaborating with scientific groups from across the campus to model global climate change.

It was in those computer labs that his climate change activism began.

"Around the year 2000, I realised that we weren't going the right way on policy, on law, on climate change.

"I was working on climate change modelling at the UEA at the time when I became aware of the scale of the problem."

It was around that time that plans for a Northern Distributor Road first reared their head, and Dr Boswell's climate activism found a local focus.

That fight was lost, and the road was built. But Dr Boswell was only just getting started and has campaigned against new Norfolk roadbuilding ever since.

He was a Green Party councillor on Norfolk County Council from 2005 until 2017.

He also served as a city councillor for some of that period, and stood as the parliamentary candidate in Broadland at the 2015, 2017 and 2019 general elections.

In 2019, he was one of a group of protestors removed by police from County Hall after refusing to leave for four hours during a meeting about plans to extend Norwich's ring road.

"I've done direct action - it was right at the beginning of Extinction Rebellion - it was one of the first things I think we did in Norfolk.

"Direct action is important, we need all the tools we can, if we look at the suffragettes and Gandhi, direct action can very effective.

"But I think we also need to do things by the law as well. It's one lever we can use to try to get some sense into the system."

Dr Boswell does see some glimmers of hope on climate change, saying that the public and the media are increasingly taking the issue seriously.

But for him, there are personal reasons which make the cause as pressing as ever.

"All the time I have been working on [legal action] in the last year, my family have had this grandchild coming and I have been very aware of the future generations and the impact climate change will have on them," he added.

"With the grandchild, it has brought the issue home for me, especially at a time where all the heat records are being broken.

"This generation is being born into a very different world and we have to do every we can to help them."

Dr Boswell hopes that his help could yet see the dualling of the A47 halted.

The matter is currently in the hands of a judge, but whichever way the decision goes it is unlikely to halt Dr Boswell himself.